Americans With Disabilities Act The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law by President George H. W. Bush in 1990. Often referred to as the world's first comprehensive disability antidiscrimination law, the statute specifies what exactly employers, government agencies, and managers of public facilities must do to ensure that people with disabilities are not unfairly excluded from social life. The ADA is enforced by an array of federal agencies and by private litigants, who under some provisions may sue and collect damages for violations.
The origins of the ADA can be traced to an earlier statute, section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act. A small clause in what was mainly a spending measure, section 504 provided that “no otherwise qualified individual … shall, solely by reason of his handicap … be subjected to discrimination in any program or activity receiving federal funds.” Federal agencies and courts interpreted the law as creating the right to sue for discrimination, and to receive “reasonable accommodation.” Section 504 only covered entities receiving federal funds, however, so disability advocates pressed for a more comprehensive law. One early proposal was to simply amend the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include people with disabilities, but many feared the consequences of opening up the act for amendment, and others argued that complexity and variety of individual disabilities warranted a separate, stand‐alone law. During the
Reagan administration the National Commission on the Handicapped created the first draft of the ADA; an amended version was introduced into Congress in the spring of 1988. This bill never got out committee, but in the 1988 presidential election both candidates endorsed the ADA in concept, and George H. W. Bush's endorsement smoothed the way for passage of the law. Revised through negotiations with disability groups, civil rights groups, and the Bush Administration, the ADA was reintroduced into Congress in 1989, and in 1990 passed both houses by overwhelming margins.
The ADA is divided into five titles. Title I covers employment in both the private and public sectors. Those who feel discriminated against have the same remedies as under the Civil Rights Act of 1964; they may bring a complaint to the EEOC and then a lawsuit. Title II covers services, facilities, and programs operated by state, local, and federal government. Complainants can make a complaint to the Justice Department, but may also bring a federal lawsuit to enjoin discriminatory conduct; limited monetary damages can also be awarded. Title III covers a vast array of private nongovernmental facilities and programs, from bars and bakeries to parks and zoos. Complainants have the same rights as under Title II. The attorney general can also sue, and where there is a “pattern and practice” of discrimination, ask for money damages and civil fines. Title IV covers telecommunications services for speech‐ and hearing‐impaired individuals and grants the Federal Communications Commission authority to enforce the law. Title V is a catch‐all section that among other things, exempts most insurance services from coverage, provides for the award of attorneys fees to prevailing parties, and declares that transvestism, homosexuality, kleptomania and current drug use are not disabilities under the ADA.
The drafters of the ADA had hoped to minimize conflict over the law by using terms and definitions drawn from the regulations and case law created under section 504, by then more then a decade old. In this they manifestly failed, and federal courts, including the Supreme Court, have for years wrestled over the ADA's key concepts. The law, for example, requires employers to make “reasonable accommodations” to facilitate employees with disabilities, but not if this causes “undue hardship”—leaving courts to decide what is “reasonable” and what is “undue.” Most of all, courts have puzzled over who exactly is disabled under the law. The ADA defines disability as having an impairment that “substantially limits” an individual in a “major life activity”—but what counts as “substantial” and “major”? Supreme Court decisions have narrowed the scope of this definition, ruling for example that correctable impairments—severe myopia in one case—are not disabilities under the ADA (
Sutton v. United Airlines, 1999). Indeed, research suggests that ADA plaintiffs have fared miserably in court. But the law has indisputably led to broad changes in the operation of programs and physical structures, and has inspired disability rights activists around the world.
See also
Tennessee v. Lane.
Thomas F. Burke
